Weekend Cooking: Chocolate Mousse Cake....or is it.

Last week I tried a new recipe by Donna Hay called Chocolate Mousse Cake from her book Modern Baking. It was totally delicious, but I do find myself pondering if it is actually a cake. Clearly I don't have enough to think about, which isn't true at all. Or maybe it is that I have too many things to think about and therefore I find myself contemplating unimportant things to give my otherwise overloaded brain a break. Either way, I have been thinking it about it a lot.

So let me tell you about this 'cake' and then I will share why I am wondering if it is really a cake. 

The recipe starts with a biscuit base, similar to what you would use for a cheesecake. In this case, it is Oreo style biscuits crushed up and combined with melted butter and then pressed into a cake tin.

The second layer is a chocolate mousse which uses whipped egg whites to give it the lightness that you need for a mousse. There is no gelatin. Interestingly it also uses egg yolks and at first I was a bit confused thinking that those egg yolks wouldn't be cooked, but I guess they cook because you add them to a still warm chocolate mixture.

The final layer is a chocolate glaze which is poured over the top of the set mousse.

It was totally decadent, and totally delicious, but was it a cake? 

Years ago I remember reading a book that gave definitions of what the difference was between cake and cookies/biscuits, given that they share very similar ingredients.  I am fairly sure it was in a book called Cake: A Global History by Nicola Humble, but I could be wrong.

From what I can remember the difference is that cake goes hard as it gets stale whereas a cookie will get softer!  In this case, if you left it out of the fridge, the mousse started to melt which isn't really either of these things.

According to the Collins Dictionary, one of the definitions is

A cake is a sweet food made by baking a mixture of flour, eggs, sugar, and fat in an oven. Cakes may be large and cut into slices or small and intended for one person only.

So unless you count the flour in the premade cookies, it isn't really a cake. Maybe it was called a Chocolate Mousse Cake because if it was called a Chocolate Mousse Dessert, you might expect it to be served up in bowl like normal chocolate mousse.

Oh well, what it comes down to is that it was delicious, and the people I shared it with enjoyed it too, so really that's all that matters right.

Chocolate Mousse Cake (Donna Hay)

300g store-bought cream-filled chocolate biscuits

100g unsalted butter, melted

400g dark chocolate, finely chopped

1/2 cup (125ml) single (pouring) cream

4 eggs, separated

1/4 cup (45g) light brown sugar

1 1/2 cups (375ml) double (tick) cream, whipped

For the glaze

1/2 cup (125ml) single (pouring) cream

2 tablesppons liquid glucose

100g 70% dark chocolate, finely choppped 

1 teaspoon vegetable oil.

Line a deep-sided 20cm round springform tin with non-stick baking paper. Place the biscusits in a food processor and process into fine crumbs. Add the butter and process to combine. Using the back of a spoon, press the mixture into the base of the tin and refrigerate until ready to use.

Place the chocolate and single cream in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (the bown shouldn't touch the water) and stir until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Add the egg yolks and whisk to combine.

Place the eggwhites in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk on high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar and whisk until thick and glossy.

Add the whipped cream to the chocolate mixture and gently fold to combine. In 2 batches, add the egg white and fold to combine. Spoon the mousse onto the biscuit base and smooth the top. Regrigerate for 4-5 hours or until set.

To make the chocolate glaze, place the cream and glucose in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, add the chocolate and all to stand for 5 mintes or until the chocolate is melted. Add the oil and whisk until smooth. Allow to cool slightly.

Pour the glaze over the cake, gently tilting and tapping until even. Refrigerate for a further 1 hour or until set.

Carefully remove the cake from the tin and place on a cake stand or plate to serve.

As an aside, whenever I see the words fold it in in a recipe, I can't help but think of this scene from Schitt's Creek.

Weekly Meals 

 Saturday - Potato and Mozzarella Tortilla

Sunday - Potato and Mozzarella Tortilla

Monday - Pasta Pomodoro

Tuesday - Steak with mushrooms and roast potatoes

Wednesday - Enchiladas

Thursday - Chicken skewers with baked potato and salad

Friday - Chicken and chips(takeaway)

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

Vintage Weekend Cooking: Lamingtons

I have been blogging for a long time now** There are lots and lots of posts sitting in these archives. Every now and again I come across a post that I had forgotten about, or that I look at and think is interesting, or really relevant now. Over the last couple of weeks I have seen a couple of posts which I thought I would like to be posting again now. And then, I thought, well.....why not!

And so the idea came to me about reposting some of them. When I do, they will be clearly marked as Vintage, and they will be for specific reason so it will be clear that they are not entirely new content. It is unlikely that the Vintage posts will be straight book reviews, or memes, and I have no idea  how often this will happen. I guess we will see as time goes on.

**Maybe I should say I began blogging a long time ago, given that I did take a year off and sometimes was more consistent than others.

My first Vintage post is a book review but I am posting it more because of the lamington recipe which is part of the post. Tomorrow, in my Weekend Cooking post, I will be sharing a new version of a lamington recipe, so I though it would be fun to be able to compare the two recipes.

I also happened to mention the book Cake: A Global History by Nicola Humble in this week's Top Ten Tuesday post.

I originally posted this in January 2011.

Let them eat cake! What birthday, wedding, bar mitzvah or children's party would be complete without it? It is the ultimate food of celebration in many cultures around the world, but how did it come to be so?

Cake: A Global History explores the origin of modern cakes and its development from sweet bread to architectural flight of fancy, together with the meanings, legends and rituals attached to cake through the ages.

Nicola Humble reviews the many national differences in cake-making techniques, customs - the French, for example, have the gâteau Paris-Brest, named after the cycle race and designed to imitate the form of a bicycle wheel; in America there is New England's Election Day cake or the Southern favourite, Lady Baltimore cake - and what they reveal about the nations that make them. From Proust's madeleine to Miss Havisham’s decaying wedding cake, the symbol of her betrayal in Dicken's Great Expectations, Humble also relates food's place in literature, art and film, and what it can symbolize and illustrate: indulgence, feminity, motherhood and guilt. 

With a large selection of mouthwatering images, Cake will appeal to the many readers with an interest in food history, social, cultural, literary and art history - or, indeed, just in cake.

I don't know why, but I really don't read much non-fiction. This book is the first, and only, non fiction book that I read in 2010. There's no real reason, because when I connect to the subject matter I do enjoy reading non fiction! And let's face it, it's not that difficult to connect with the subject when it is cake!

I hadn't heard about this book, or the series it is part of, until Stephanie from Read in a Single Sitting mentioned an interview that she had heard with the author on ABC's The Book Show. I listened to the podcast and straight away ordered the book through Inter Library Loan.

I mentioned above that the book is part of a series called The Edible Series which is being published by Reaktion Books. The series is "a revolutionary new series of books on food and drink which explores the rich history of man’s consumption. Each book provides an outline for one type of food or drink, revealing its history and culture on a global scale. 50 striking illustrations, with approximately 25 in colour, accompany these engaging and accessible texts, and offer intriguing new insights into their subject. Key recipes as well as reference material will also accompany each title." (source). Other books in the series that I might be interested in reading include Cheese, Chocolate, Pancake, Soup and oh so many more!

The books aren't long, or at least Cake wasn't, but it was a really fun read. The books looks at the origins of cake and the way it has evolved over the years, the different cultural emphasis placed on cake over the years, the role of cake in literature (with one of the most obvious cakes to my mind being the decaying wedding cake that was so symbolic in Dicken's Great Expectations), and the changing face of cakes given the current popularity of cupcakes and modern structural cakes like those that you can see on shows like Ace of Cakes and The Cake Boss!

When I saw this section, I knew that when I posted about the book for Weekend Cooking, there was one thing that I wanted to concentrate on. This particular section about an Australian icon caught my attention for obvious reasons. This quote comes from page 54 and 55:

And then there is the Lamington, which is virtually the patron cake of Australia. A small square single-portion sponge cake (baked in a sheet like petit fours and then sliced up), a Lamington is dipped in chocolate icing and then rolled in coconut. The cakes are believed to be named after Baron Lamington, the governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901. Different sources assign the connection either to his kitchens (claiming the cake was invented there, perhaps, prosaically, as a way to use up stale or burnt sponge cake), or to his wife (said to have a keen interest in household matters), or to a homburg hat the governor was given to wearing which alleged resembled the cakes. Lor Lamington was said to loath his namesakes and to refer to them as 'those bloody poofy woolly biscuits'. For reasons I have been entirely unable to ascertain, Lamingtons  attained the status of an institution in both Australia and New Zealand. The earliest published recipe so far known dates from 1902, when the Queenslander weekly newspaper published a recipe contributed by 'A Subscriber'. Fund raising cake sales are often referred to as Lamington Drives - a nomenclature which may be evidence of the popularity of the cake or may in part contribute to it.

Reading that, what else could I do for this week's Weekend Cooking post but share a recipe for lamingtons. I have to say, I am not generally all that fond of these. When they are done well they are very yummy, but I have had some very average versions in my time.

This version of lamingtons looks a little different than most mainly because usually the coconut that is used is dessicated coconut but this recipe calls for shredded coconut.

Once again the recipe comes from my trusty favourite recipe website - Taste.com.au.

Photography by Chris Chen

Lamingtons

Makes 16
Prep time 45 mins
Cooking Time 15 mins


Ingredients

4 eggs

125g caster sugar

125g plain flour

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

50g unsalted butter, melted

200g shredded coconut



Chocolate icing

25g unsalted butter

160ml (2/3 cup) milk

500g icing sugar

50g (1/2 cup) Dutch cocoa (see note)


Method

1. Preheat oven to 190C. Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm square cake pan with baking paper. Fill a sink one-third full with water. Place eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Place bowl in sink and whisk for 2 minutes or until mixture is runny and slightly foamy. Remove from sink.
2. Using an electric mixer, whisk on high speed for 4 minutes or until mixture is pale and triples in volume. Using a sieve, sift just enough flour to cover the top of the egg mixture. Using a large metal spoon, fold in flour in one light motion. Repeat sifting and folding with remaining flour until just combined.
3. Combine vanilla and butter in a bowl, then add a large spoonful of batter and stir to combine. Gently fold the butter mixture into batter until just combined, then spoon into the prepared pan.
4. On a work surface, spin the pan to level, then bake for 25 minutes or until centre springs back when pressed with your fingertip. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Freeze for 20 minutes; this will make the sponge easier to cut.
5. To make icing, stir butter and milk in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water until butter is melted. Sift over sugar and cocoa, then stir until smooth. Turn off heat.
6. Using a large serrated knife, trim sides of sponge, then cut into 16 cubes. Scatter coconut over a tray. Insert a skewer into the crust side of a piece of sponge (don’t go all the way through). Holding skewer over icing, and, holding a spoon in the other hand, spoon icing over the sponge, rotating the skewer to coat evenly. Shake off excess, then slide sponge off the skewer onto the tray of coconut. Scatter coconut over the top and sides of sponge, then transfer to a tray lined with baking paper. Repeat with remaining sponge cubes, icing and coconut. If the icing starts to thicken, stir in a little water to thin.

Notes

• Dutch cocoa is treated with an alkali, which gives it a darker, redder brown colour than regular cocoa, as well as a more intense chocolate taste. It is available from delis. Alternatively, substitute regular cocoa.

Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make Me Smile

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books that Make Me Smile. I am very conscious though, that many of the books that make me smile are the ones that I have already mentioned multiple times, so I was trying to think of other ways to spin this topic.

I did think I was onto a good thing when I thought that I would look for books that I have read that had words like smile in the title. It turns out I have read very few books with this word in the title, or grin, or any words like that. I needed a different tact.

My TTT list today is therefore a list of things that make me happy. So there are two books about music, two about cake, two about books, two about chocolate, and then finally two books with happy in the titles because these are just a few of the things that make me happy. And the fact that a couple of these books are set in Paris is a bonus. I have added a link to reviews where possible.

The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke (review)

Music and Silence by Rose Tremain

Cake: A Global History by Nicola Humble (review)

Chocolate Cake for Breakfast by Danielle Hawkins (review)

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (review)

The Chocolate Run by Dorothy Koomson

The Chocolate Thief by Laura Florand

Happy Ever After by Nora Roberts

The Garden of Happy Endings by Barbara O'Neal

I did want to cheat and share one more book this week. This is a performance of a children's book that I listened to this week, and it made me smile so many times. It is Taika Waititi and some of his friends reading Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach. It is pure joy to listen to, so here is the first episode.

Weekend Cooking: Cake: A Global History by Nicola Humble

Let them eat cake! What birthday, wedding, bar mitzvah or children's party would be complete without it? It is the ultimate food of celebration in many cultures around the world, but how did it come to be so?

Cake: A Global History explores the origin of modern cakes and its development from sweet bread to architectural flight of fancy, together with the meanings, legends and rituals attached to cake through the ages.

Nicola Humble reviews the many national differences in cake-making techniques, customs - the French, for example, have the gâteau Paris-Brest, named after the cycle race and designed to imitate the form of a bicycle wheel; in America there is New England's Election Day cake or the Southern favourite, Lady Baltimore cake - and what they reveal about the nations that make them. From Proust's madeleine to Miss Havisham’s decaying wedding cake, the symbol of her betrayal in Dicken's Great Expectations, Humble also relates food's place in literature, art and film, and what it can symbolize and illustrate: indulgence, feminity, motherhood and guilt. 

With a large selection of mouthwatering images, Cake will appeal to the many readers with an interest in food history, social, cultural, literary and art history - or, indeed, just in cake.

I don't know why, but I really don't read much non-fiction. This book is the first, and only, non fiction book that I read in 2010. There's no real reason, because when I connect to the subject matter I do enjoy reading non fiction! And let's face it, it's not that difficult to connect with the subject when it is cake!

I hadn't heard about this book, or the series it is part of, until Stephanie from Read in a Single Sitting mentioned an interview that she had heard with the author on ABC's The Book Show. I listened to the podcast and straight away ordered the book through Inter Library Loan.

I mentioned above that the book is part of a series called The Edible Series which is being published by Reaktion Books. The series is "a revolutionary new series of books on food and drink which explores the rich history of man’s consumption. Each book provides an outline for one type of food or drink, revealing its history and culture on a global scale. 50 striking illustrations, with approximately 25 in colour, accompany these engaging and accessible texts, and offer intriguing new insights into their subject. Key recipes as well as reference material will also accompany each title." (source). Other books in the series that I might be interested in reading include Cheese, Chocolate, Pancake, Soup and oh so many more!

The books aren't long, or at least Cake wasn't, but it was a really fun read. The books looks at the origins of cake and the way it has evolved over the years, the different cultural emphasis placed on cake over the years, the role of cake in literature (with one of the most obvious cakes to my mind being the decaying wedding cake that was so symbolic in Dicken's Great Expectations), and the changing face of cakes given the current popularity of cupcakes and modern structural cakes like those that you can see on shows like Ace of Cakes and The Cake Boss!

When I saw this section, I knew that when I posted about the book for Weekend Cooking, there was one thing that I wanted to concentrate on. This particular section about an Australian icon caught my attention for obvious reasons. This quote comes from page 54 and 55:

And then there is the Lamington, which is virtually the patron cake of Australia. A small square single-portion sponge cake (baked in a sheet like petit fours and then sliced up), a Lamington is dipped in chocolate icing and then rolled in coconut. The cakes are believed to be named after Baron Lamington, the governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901. Different sources assign the connection either to his kitchens (claiming the cake was invented there, perhaps, prosaically, as a way to use up stale or burnt sponge cake), or to his wife (said to have a keen interest in household matters), or to a homburg hat the governor was given to wearing which alleged resembled the cakes. Lor Lamington was said to loath his namesakes and to refer to them as 'those bloody poofy woolly biscuits'. For reasons I have been entirely unable to ascertain, Lamingtons  attained the status of an institution in both Australia and New Zealand. The earliest published recipe so far known dates from 1902, when the Queenslander weekly newspaper published a recipe contributed by 'A Subscriber'. Fund raising cake sales are often referred to as Lamington Drives - a nomenclature which may be evidence of the popularity of the cake or may in part contribute to it.

Reading that, what else could I do for this week's Weekend Cooking post but share a recipe for lamingtons. I have to say, I am not generally all that fond of these. When they are done well they are very yummy, but I have had some very average versions in my time.

This version of lamingtons looks a little different than most mainly because usually the coconut that is used is dessicated coconut but this recipe calls for shredded coconut.

Once again the recipe comes from my trusty favourite recipe website - Taste.com.au.

Photography by Chris Chen

Lamingtons

Makes 16
Prep time 45 mins
Cooking Time 15 mins


Ingredients

4 eggs

125g caster sugar

125g plain flour

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

50g unsalted butter, melted

200g shredded coconut



Chocolate icing

25g unsalted butter

160ml (2/3 cup) milk

500g icing sugar

50g (1/2 cup) Dutch cocoa (see note)


Method

1. Preheat oven to 190C. Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm square cake pan with baking paper. Fill a sink one-third full with water. Place eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Place bowl in sink and whisk for 2 minutes or until mixture is runny and slightly foamy. Remove from sink.
2. Using an electric mixer, whisk on high speed for 4 minutes or until mixture is pale and triples in volume. Using a sieve, sift just enough flour to cover the top of the egg mixture. Using a large metal spoon, fold in flour in one light motion. Repeat sifting and folding with remaining flour until just combined.
3. Combine vanilla and butter in a bowl, then add a large spoonful of batter and stir to combine. Gently fold the butter mixture into batter until just combined, then spoon into the prepared pan.
4. On a work surface, spin the pan to level, then bake for 25 minutes or until centre springs back when pressed with your fingertip. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Freeze for 20 minutes; this will make the sponge easier to cut.
5. To make icing, stir butter and milk in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water until butter is melted. Sift over sugar and cocoa, then stir until smooth. Turn off heat.
6. Using a large serrated knife, trim sides of sponge, then cut into 16 cubes. Scatter coconut over a tray. Insert a skewer into the crust side of a piece of sponge (don’t go all the way through). Holding skewer over icing, and, holding a spoon in the other hand, spoon icing over the sponge, rotating the skewer to coat evenly. Shake off excess, then slide sponge off the skewer onto the tray of coconut. Scatter coconut over the top and sides of sponge, then transfer to a tray lined with baking paper. Repeat with remaining sponge cubes, icing and coconut. If the icing starts to thicken, stir in a little water to thin.

Notes

• Dutch cocoa is treated with an alkali, which gives it a darker, redder brown colour than regular cocoa, as well as a more intense chocolate taste. It is available from delis. Alternatively, substitute regular cocoa.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Teaser Tuesday: Cake: A Global History by Nicola Humble

After having missed Teaser Tuesday last week for the first time in months, I am back with some festive teasers from my first (and most likely only) non fiction read of the year.

I have chosen a couple of teasers, both relating to Christmas cakes, from Cake: A Global History by Nicola Humble. This is part of a series of called The Edible Series where each book focuses on a particular type of food. In addition to this one about Cake, there are others about Pie, Cheese, Chocolate etc. I am definitely planning to try and read more because it was a fun little read. I am planning to do a Weekend Cooking post about this book in the next few weeks!

My first teaser comes from pages 19:

By the Middle Ages, porridge existed in many forms, one of which was an enriched version in which the oats or wheat were accompanied by dried fruits, suet, butter, honey and spices. This luxurious mixture had a celebratory function, and was often served Christmas. This 'plum porridge' ('plum' being the generic medieval term for dried fruits) eventually became so stiff with ingredients that it was more solid than liquid. It was at this stage that cooks began to boil it in a cloth, developing the glossy, round plum pudding that was later to play so central a role in the Victorian Christmas.

and then from page 77:

The Twelfth Cake was replaced by (some would say mutated into) the Christmas cake - still a rich fruit cake with almond and royal icing, but no longer bearing those symbolic figures.

The British Christmas cake, like many of our most treasured rituals of the season, is not, therefore, very old at all. It has, though, acquired a notable presence as a symbolically necessary component of the festivities.

Merry Christmas to my fellow Teaser Tuesday-ers!

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!